Jailed Tunisian opposition leader faced brutal violence in prison, his lawyer says

By Tarek Amara

TUNIS (Reuters) -The family and lawyers of jailed Tunisian opposition leader Jawhar Ben Mbarek accused prison authorities on Wednesday of brutally assaulting him to try to force an end to his two-week-old hunger strike.

Ben Mbarek, one of the most prominent opponents of President Kais Saied, was detained in 2023 and sentenced this year to 18 years in prison on charges of conspiring to overthrow the president; he has denied the charges, which he said were fabricated.

“Ben Mbarek faced torture. He was severely beaten, we saw fractures and bruises on his body,” his lawyer Hanen Khmiri said. “He told me that four of the prison guards beat him severely in a place where there is no surveillance camera.”

The prison authority did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment. It had denied this week that hunger-striking detainees were in deteriorating health.

Ben Mbarek’s family and lawyers say he has maintained his hunger strike, despite the beating.

His protest is part of a broader wave of hunger strikes by at least five jailed opposition leaders, including Rached Ghannouchi, the 84-year-old head of the main opposition Ennahda party, Issam Chebbi, Reda Belhaj and Abdelhamid Jlassi.

The detainees are demanding their release, saying the charges against them were invented.

Ben Mbarek’s father, who has said he holds Saied responsible for any harm that comes to his son, said he had reported his treatment to the prison.

“The prison director promised me to investigate the allegations,” he said.

Rights groups have repeatedly accused Saied’s government of using the judiciary to silence dissent, amid what critics say is a steep slide back into authoritarian rule.

Saied, who seized most powers in 2021 and later began ruling by decree, a move the opposition described as a coup, denies the accusations, saying that the judiciary is independent.

He calls opposition leaders traitors, mercenaries and terrorists, and has said that any judges who acquit them are their accomplices.

(Reporting by Tarek Amara; editing by Philippa Fletcher)